UK officials sounded the alarm on Thursday night (November 25) over the B.1.1.529 variant, which has the potential to evade immunity built up by vaccination or prior infection. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the new variant identified in South Africa “may be more transmissible” than the Delta strain and “the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective”. He said that flights to England from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe will be suspended from midday on Friday and all six countries will be added to the red list. While no cases have been found in Britain, officials raised concern over a rapid rise in cases in South Africa.Īnyone who has arrived from the country in the last 10 days will be invited to come forward and take a test by the UK Health Security Agency. If you are working with binary data (or data with a fixed-size file format) you can use the BinaryStream class. The UK Government said on Thursday that UK and Irish residents who arrive in England between midday on Friday and 4am on Sunday, and who have been in the six countries within the last 10 days, must quarantine at home for 10 days and take NHS PCR tests on day two and day eight, even if they already have a lateral flow test booked. If you are working with text files, you use the TextInputStream class to load data and the TextOutputStream class to save data. Passengers – including UK and Irish residents – arriving from 4am on Sunday will be required to book and pay for a Government-approved hotel and quarantine for 10 days. They must also take tests on day two and day eight.ĭirect flights from the six nations to the UK are being temporarily banned until 4am on Sunday, once the quarantine hotels have been set up. The Scottish Government also confirmed all arrivals from the six countries will be required to self-isolate and take two PCR tests from midday on Friday, while anyone arriving after 4am on Saturday will need to stay at a managed quarantine hotel. “But today’s announcement, this is about a new variant from South Africa – it’s been detected in South Africa and Botswana – and this is about being cautious and taking action and trying to protect, as best we can, our borders.” The Northern Ireland Executive announced it was following England with the same restrictions.Īt the moment, around 500 to 700 people are travelling to the UK from South Africa each day, but it is expected this figure could increase as the festive period begins.įrom midday on Friday November 26, non-UK and Irish residents who have visited the nations in the previous 10 days will be refused entry into England.Īsked what the situation would mean for the UK over the coming weeks, Mr Javid said: “We’ve got plans in place, as people know, for the spread of this infection here in the UK and we have contingency plans – the so-called Plan B.
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